Townships revived

In late 2006, the Scottish Executive appointed a Committee of Inquiry on Crofting under the chairmanship of Professor Mark Shucksmith. The committee presented its recommendations on 12 May.

There has been wide acceptance that the Crofting Reform etc (Scotland) Act 2007 was not the last word. A major issue the inquiry identified is the demand for housing, leading to high prices for assignations of crofts, house sites and croft land. The loss of land and houses from crofting control is detrimental to maintaining, supporting and developing vibrant crofting communities.

Main conclusions

The main recommendations include:

•     Abolishing the Crofters Commission and transferring its regulation and enforcement functions to a Federation of Local Crofting Boards, in order to provide greater local accessibility. The Federation would comprise 7-10 elected local boards, with an executive supplying staff, support and central services to the boards. Responsibility for development of crofting would be transferred to a crofting community development body, preferably within Highlands & Islands Enterprise.

•     Grazing committees becoming crofting township development committees, with a more inclusive membership and broader remit, primarily to prepare strategic plans for local crofting development, supported by the new development body.

•     Approval of all tenancies and sublettings by the local crofting boards, which would have power to limit the number of crofts or the amount of land to be held or worked by any one crofter.

•     Greater diversity of control: it may be appropriate if each local board has the power to suspend the tenant’s right to buy.

•     The local crofting board to consent to decrofting. Decrofting of house sites would generally be conditional on accepting a real burden requiring residency on the croft. The board would have to consider the wider public interest in giving or refusing consent.

•     Registers of Scotland to take responsibility for the register of crofts. A consultancy exercise would assess the accuracy of the current register.

•     Boundaries of crofts which have been accepted for 20 years or more to be unchallengeable.

•     A crofting lease to be registrable and eligible to be offered as security under a standard security.

•     A review of the existing agricultural subsidies (including single farm payment, less favoured area support scheme, and crofting counties agricultural grant scheme), with early elimination of constraints militating against new entrants.

•     An enhanced croft house grant scheme (CHGS) specifically designed to permit house building and improvement without the need for decrofting. Affordable housing for non-crofters should be provided by registered social landlords and community trusts; “apprenticeship accommodation” might be built by RSLs in a township where new entrants are offered bare croft land. New entrants should serve a five year probationary period before being eligible for CHGS or a loan.

•     Whilst no change is proposed to the rights attaching to individual crofters in respect of security of tenure, succession and fair rents, such rights should only be enjoyed by those resident on or near the croft and using the land beneficially.

•     All croft houses to be tied to residency through a real burden, deemed to be included in the conveyancing when the lease is next assigned or the land purchased, to run with the land in perpetuity. Decrofting the house site or purchasing the landlord’s interest would not extinguish this burden. Crofters may apply to the local crofting board to have the burden removed only if this is in the wider community interest.

•     A crofter wishing to assign or transfer his croft, or forced to do so through failing to fulfil the residency condition, to be given the option of: assigning or transferring within the family, provided the local board’s occupancy criteria are satisfied; or transferring freely to others, subject to an enhanced burden, if there is a croft house or a burdened house, tying the new owner to occupancy and to actively working the land; or detaching the house from the croft and selling at open market value but with the residency burden retained, while transfer of the remaining bare land would be subject to rules of the local crofting board, which might require assignation to its selected tenant.

•     Backdating the residency burden, if introduced, to run from 12 May 2008 to forestall any rush to avoid new legislation. It might apply to applications for consent to assign, or notifications of change of ownership of land received by the Crofters Commission after that date.

Early action

MSPs of all parties have commended the conclusions of the report, which has also been welcomed by the Scottish Crofting Foundation. Environment Minister Michael Russell said he expected this to end in legislation, as “doing nothing is not an option”. Ministers are to publish their conclusions “by the end of the summer”, and are likely to move quickly towards legislation, rather than engage in further consultation.